Hyland's looks to have reformulated teething tablets back on the market in 2011

By Michael Johnsen

LOS ANGELES Hyland’s plans to have a reformulated Teething Tablets product back on the market in early 2011, the company stated, following the initiation of its voluntary recall of the product last week.

Consumer reaction to the recall overall has been supportive, Jay Borneman, Hyland’s chairman and CEO, told Drug Store News. “Our Facebook friends went up by half; the blog posts were almost three-to-one positive,” he said. From this point, Borneman said, Hyland’s will be looking to introduce an improved product offering, instituting new production protocols to ensure the consistency behind what will be a reformulated Teething Tablets product, along with incorporating child-resistant packaging.

Hyland’s experience also may serve as a case example of how to efficiently execute a recall for mid-tier companies. This marked the first product recall in Hyland’s history, Borneman said, requiring the company to acquire and put into action entirely new skill sets — such as reverse logistics, for example. “For us to react to what we had decided to do, frankly, required us in very short measure to build some fairly sophisticated competencies,” he said. “Over the course of the last couple of years, our friends over at [the Consumer Healthcare Products Association] had introduced us to a large number of people who became very important very fast in the course of managing the project,” Borneman added, enabling the company to effectively execute against its decision to recall the products.

Hyland’s recalled its Hyland’s Teething Tablets on Oct. 23 “in an abundance of caution due to an FDA investigation of its manufacturing facility,” the company stated. The company, in working with the FDA, has identified manufacturing processes of Teething Tablets that can be improved to ensure uniformity in dosage.

Adverse events have been reported, but the FDA said that a conclusive link had not been determined.